If it was the cave paintings, then is art humanities deepest/most ingrained language?

If we are to follow the evidence of modern science, first came the recognition of death, as in Only Death Is Real. Humans differ from other animals because they are constantly aware of their impending doom and base all their rational actions on the fact that they will die some day. Animals are aware of death only in the moment of dying or when directly facing a dying organism, but they don't base much of their actions around that. So, if we were to follow this, probably the first art was some kind of a funeral rite, as evidences of these rites are the first proof of prehistoric human aware of his own death.

Elephants may experience emotions when recognizing the bones of their dead (probably driven to the graveyard by the same instincts which guide turtles deep into the land to lay eggs), but do not organize their lives around the single fact of inevitable death. When animals build dams and other complex structures, it's under the command of their species' instincts, karma you could say. Only humans consciously plan future actions while living with one foot in the future, disconnected from immediacy, preserving the temporary continuity of their existence.

Only humans consciously plan future actions while living with one foot in the future, disconnected from immediacy, preserving the temporary continuity of their existence.

Not many do that. Most people are entirely concerned with the present.

I wouldn't agree. For instance, if you consider some low brow crook, his goal might be a night spent with a bottle of hooch and a decent whore, but most of his time will be spent planning and executing the robbery. A shot of adrenalin during the robbery might raise him to a higher level, but the only moments spent in the present will be connected with alcoholic delirium, intercourse and especially ejaculation. A couch potato will dream about TV during work-time, but won't quit the job in fear of losing both couch and the potato he nourished for so long. Of course, both proles and the elevated experience ecstatic moments, but in different fashion. These moments always belong to the irrational part of human behavior.

Only humans consciously plan future actions while living with one foot in the future, disconnected from immediacy, preserving the temporary continuity of their existence.

Not many do that. Most people are entirely concerned with the present.

I wouldn't agree. For instance, if you consider some low brow crook, his goal might be a night spent with a bottle of hooch and a decent whore, but most of his time will be spent planning and executing the robbery. A shot of adrenalin during the robbery might raise him to a higher level, but the only moments spent in the present will be connected with alcoholic delirium, intercourse and especially ejaculation. A couch potato will dream about TV during work-time, but won't quit the job in fear of losing both couch and the potato he nourished for so long. Of course, both proles and the elevated experience ecstatic moments, but in different fashion. These moments always belong to the irrational part of human behavior.

Here we see elephants formulating and carrying out plans, though they may or may not be conscious of their mortality. Their raids are frequently successful as well.

While reading the article on Mexican Metal, I gave a thought about the importance of conscious experience of death through sacrifice. Fruits of the typical human development in nature (manifested in all ancient cultures, as we know them) all reek of the awareness I find obligatory to denote as fundamental.